Wishing to finance a recycling program? Willingness-to-pay study for enhancing municipal solid waste recycling in urban settlements in Thailand

• Willingness to Pay (WTP) for municipal solid waste (MSW) services varies by level of urbanization.
• Being accustomed to free MSW service is a prevalent cause for zero WTP.
• Education and practice of waste separation are strong predictors of WTP.
• Pay as you throw can boost MSW separation in Thailand.

This study measured willingness to pay (WTP) for the addition of recycling services into existing municipal solid waste management in different types of settlements in Thailand. Questionnaire surveys were distributed in person to gather recycling-related socio-economic factors. The mean WTP was identified by the payment card method and analysed by interval regression. Analysis of results revealed that mean monthly WTPs increase, although not linearly, in the least urbanized areas (∼0.73 USD), the urbanized areas (∼1.96 USD), and the most urbanized areas (∼1.65 USD). Common factors that influenced WTP were (a) higher level education and (b) a habit of separating recyclables. However, other socio-economic and recycling behaviour factors affected willingness to pay in each settlement differently. The mean WTP from each study site is consistently higher than the current rate for waste disposal, which signifies that average respondents from all study sites favoured recycling.